Based on the 2012 survey by the US Census Bureau, City Mayors found that the largest US cities grew strongly between 2000 and 2012. In 2012, almost 78 million Americans lived in the country’s 200 largest cities compared to 71 million twelve years earlier. Since the 2010 national census, the population in America’s largest 200 cities has increased from 75.9 million to 77.7 million. But the proportion of Americans living in them has dropped slightly from 24.8 per cent in 2003 to 24.6 per cent today. During the past ten years, the US population rose from 293.6 million to 315.9 million. Table

New York City has been the largest US city for more than one hundred year. Since 1910, it almost doubled in size. While Chicago was the second-largest city in 1910, Los Angeles does not feature in the top ten. Instead the historical ranking includes cities like St Loius, Cleveland, Boston, Baltimore and Buffalo. Table

Numerically, New York City is by far the fastest growing city in the US. Since the 2010 census, the city population increased by 161,500, from 8.175 million to 8.337 million. Los Angeles, the country’s second-fastest growing city, added 65,200 inhabitants since 2010. Three Texan cities, Houston, San Antonio and Austin, all grew by more than 50,000 people. Table

Detroit is still shrinking but the city’s decline has leveled off. Whereas during the first three years of this century, the city lost almost 40,000 people, between 2010 and 2012 the shrinkage has been reduced to 12,300. The earlier decline of other major US cities has been reversed. Chicago, which lost 26,000 people in the early years of the 21st century, has recovered and attracted almost 20,000 new citizens between 2010 and 2012. Other cities, where growth has resumed after having suffered losses, include San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Orleans. Table

California is the US state with the largest number of cities with more than 100,000 people. Some 44 cities in City Mayors’ table of the largest 200 US cities are in the west-coast state. A few US states, including North Dakota, West Virginia and Vermont, have no cities with populations of more than 100,000 people.

Historical ranking of America’s 10 largest citiesWith population figures for 2012, 1960 and 1910